At the Libraries: Your Weekly Round-Up

Every Wednesday, Miss Kathleen provides links to a variety of things happening at libraries across the country. If there's something fun going on in your local library this week, leave us a comment!

Jezebel has some great recommendations for guilty-pleasure reading this summer. I just put Valley of the Dolls on hold! What's your beach book?
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One of my favorite blogs, Awful Library Books, has dug up another gem. Check out Makeup For Fun and its terrifying accompanying photos. Sure to induce nightmares for kids of all ages!
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Speaking of summer reads, does the word Mockingjay mean anything to you? That's the 3rd and final book in the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, and teens of America will be clamoring for it. It might just knock Steig Larsson off the top of the bestseller lists -- it's already cracked Amazon's Top Ten and its release is still weeks away.
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Shelf Check is another great library comic (and a "shelf check" is what we do when we check and see if a book is on the shelf or not and trust me, it often is not, despite what the catalog says). Here's a recent one and I can attest that this is an accurate reflection of how my storytime kids are, too. Ah, the innocence of youth.

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I admit, I was proud of myself after putting together my ALA video, which we featured last week. But then I saw another video, also done by a children's librarian. And, well, it's way better (and shorter!). For a much quicker recap, fancy captions and all, you should check out 100 Scope Notes:

Another amazing ALA thing that I missed was the Book Cart Drill Team contest. Check out this entry—Night of the Living Librarians:

Okay, this is awesome. A rare book in the Van Pelt Library at U Penn is bound in human skin! Anthropodermic binding was relatively commonplace in medical schools in the late 1800s. So fascinating.
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Have you heard of AskAway? This now-defunct Canadian program "let patrons from all over the province ask questions of librarians online, in real time, and receive an immediate answer." My library is thinking about starting something similar. Do you think you'd use it?
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Last but not least, and oldie but a goodie: Library Science Jargon that Sounds Dirty. Some of it is a bit of a stretch, but, well, anything can sound dirty if you think about it too long.

Email Miss Kathleen to let her know what your library is up to—atthelibraries@gmail.com. See previous installments of At the Libraries here.